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Checkpoints is your one stop for useful and unusual DUI news from across the country. We're part of the Total DUI network, a free resource for anyone wanting information on DUI laws, arrests and everything else. We want you to protect you. This means knowing the laws, and, as we'll show you, it also means knowing what not to do.

The content found on the Checkpoints DUI Blog is not legal advice and is purely for informational purposes. TotalDUI, LLC. does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of submissions. The information provided by the bloggers on this site may not represent the opinions of the site editor(s), Total DUI, Inc. or its affiliates. The information contained herein is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. For additional disclaimers, please visit our Terms & Conditions.

Travis Peterson decided he was too drunk to drive home after attending a Dave Matthew Band Concert. The 19-year-old tried to sleep off his buzz in his car, but was awoken by a state trooped who ordered him to clear the lot.

After Peterson left the lot, just south of Milwaukee, to drive to his house in Dixon, Ill., he was pulled over and arrest for drinking and driving. Peterson was found guilty of DUI and ordered to 60 days in jail.

On Wednesday, July 15, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled in favor of Peterson, commending him for trying to sleep his buzz off instead of driving. The appeals court ruled that the DUI court was wrong not to let Peterson argue police had entrapped him.

“Drinking alcohol to excess, while inadvisable and unhealthy, is not unlawful by itself,” the press reported the appeals court as saying.

Some people are slow learners. Cases in point: This week we have two examples of people being arrested for DUI on consecutive days.

In Brownsville, Texas a man ran a vehicle off the road at 2 a.m. on a Tuesday. He was arrested, charged with his first DUI and released about 11:20 a.m. on $3,000 bond.

A mere six hours later he was picked up again after he hit another vehicle. He was charged, once again, with DUI – and a host of other vehicular charges – and placed in prison under $40,000 bond.

Two days, two DUIs.

But in Wisconsin, a woman topped the Texas mark, picking up three DUI arrests in three days. Her first arrest came as she tried to drive out of a ditch near a state park. She was wearing only one shoe and registered a BAC of .21.

Not 24-hours later her car was stuck in a snow bank and she was arrested for DUI again.

“I am still finishing up the box of wine in my car from yesterday,” authorities reported she told the officer.

She spent 12 hours in jail, but was picked up not long after her release. She was reported to be driving erratically and was found, once again, with a box of wine in her car. She will now spend 30 days in jail.

The University of Wisconsin announced that it will be offering a beer brewing class this spring under the instruction of Jon Roll.

According to The Chicago Tribune, the Madison campus is one of the first in the nation to offer this type of course.

Roll says that the class is not inspired by the college’s party reputation – as it has been ranked the number one party school in the last few years by Playboy and Princeton Review. Wisconsin is also known for having the highest binge drinking rate in the country.

However, Roll says the class was created because of the region’s history of making beer. The course will teach students about fermentation.

MillerCoors donated equipment that will help the class make 10 gallons of beer. At the end of the semester, the students will critique a sample, and the rest of the beer will be dumped.

After four-year-old Jon Port’s death in 1991, a grass-roots movement began to get stricter DUI laws passed in Wisconsin.

Finally in 1999, a law was passed that made a fifth offense of drinking and driving a felony. The Wisconsin government hoped this new law would keep repeat offenders of DUIs off the road.

However, the Journal Sentinel completed an analysis that found that less than half the people sentenced for a felony DUI in Milwaukee County go to prison.

The survey looked at all criminal convictions for people convicted of five DUI offenses. There were 161 fifth offense cases from 1999 to 2006.

According to the report, only 70 defendants went to prison, while most got their sentence reduced by completing boot camps, treatment programs or petitioning the judge. The survey also found that about 25% of the people with fifth-offense convictions have already re-offended at least once.

It’s hardly news that underage teenagers have drinking parties, unfortunately. But this one has a bit of a twist.

Sheriff’s deputies in Florence, Wisc. were alerted to an underage drinking party. When they arrived, a vehicle was leaving the alleged party. When a deputy followed the vehicle, he found it in a ditch less than a mile down the road, with the occupants out of sight in the nearby woods.

Several more vehicles coming from the direction of the party, and officers duly stopped each vehicle. One of the vehicles, however, sped off after being ordered to stop, leading the deputies on a high-speed chase for a few minutes before slamming into a snow bank in a hay field.

Five of the teens either surrendered or were captured shortly after, though deputies continued searching for a while to round up all eight teens that had spilled from the car. Eventually, the deputies left. Without shoes on, three of the teens stayed all night in the unheated vehicle after hiding out somewhere in the hay field.

The three suffered frostbite and were taken to a local hospital, where officers did finally catch up to them. A total of seven minors in possession of alcohol citations were issued to the party-goers.

For more crazy DUI stories like this one, check out Total DUI’s unusual DUI news page.

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The content found on this blog is not legal advice and is purely for informational purposes. Total DUI does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of submissions. The information provided by the bloggers on this site may not represent the opinions of the site editor(s), Total DUI or its affiliates. The information contained herein is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. For additional disclaimers, please visit our Terms & Conditions